Fic: A Man of Luck He Is Not
Title: A Man of Luck He Is Not
Rating: G
Word count: 6,521
Genre: romance/humor
Ships: Scorpius/Lily Luna
Status: Complete
Summary: Quiet, mousy Scorpius Malfoy wins a date with the girl of his dreams...and promptly panics. He's too shy to talk to her, too embarrassed not to blush, and he's very, very certain that the whole thing is going to be a disaster. This is the most unlucky day of his life.
Notes: I took a few liberties with the prompt..mostly because Scorpius refused to go in any other direction but this one no matter what I did (poor, shy dear). Many shouts of thanks and adoration to StargazerBabells for being a marvelous beta.
Written for tabitha666's prompt for hp_getlucky fest (original posted here).
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy was a rather shy and quiet boy. His reserved and gentle nature was something of a surprise to, well, everyone-especially those who had known his father as a boy. And no one in Scorpius’s family was at all shy and quiet, not even his mother, who was considered rather quiet and unassuming until his father started behaving like an idiot.
She was really rather good for his father, in Scorpius’s opinion.
So Scorpius was a bit of an anomaly, which had the effect of making him even more quiet and shy. He was a mouse in a house full of snakes, so it was a very good thing that his entire family loved him so, especially when Scorpius was sorted into Ravenclaw rather than Slytherin, as family tradition dictated he should have been. No one was more surprised by that turn of events than Scorpius himself, who’d not been looking forward to seven years living in the dungeons.
The family expressed great concern regarding his eventual fate, but despite everyone’s doubts, the last six years in Ravenclaw had been very good for Scorpius. He was happy there. He’d even made a few good friends despite his quiet demeanor, including, to everyone’s shock, his fellow Ravenclaw, Rose Weasley.
Still, despite how fortunate he’d been in life, Scorpius did not particularly consider himself lucky. In fact, he rather thought he was the opposite.
Scorpius was a bit clumsy, for one thing (possibly because he spent so much time looking down at his feet), and was constantly getting bruises from running into things. His marks were good, but he was a Ravenclaw. He had a few good friends, but that was mostly down to Rose-she loved a good mystery, and once she’d finally figured Scorpius out, she’d refused to be anything other than his best friend. His other friends were sort of drawn along in her wake. The rest of his luck-having nice things, being well regarded by the public, etc.-he put down to his father and his sincere, devoted efforts to restore his own and the family’s reputation.
Even Scorpius being in Ravenclaw could be attributed to Draco Malfoy, firstly for forcing into Scorpius’s head the fact that it was okay (even encouraged) to break away from family tradition. Secondly, Draco was the one who’d instilled in Scorpius a love of books and learning.
Scorpius himself wasn’t lucky. He’d just been born into an advantageous position. Scorpius was pretty sure that this one thing, being born into his life, his family, had used up all the luck he’d ever had.
So when Scorpius found himself standing before the Ravenclaw announcement board staring at an advert for the 6th and 7th year annual charity fundraiser, Scorpius knew a moment of panic.
Every year, the 6th and 7th years got together to put on an event to raise money for their charity of choice. This year they’d chosen the Hogwarts Muggle Education Fund, a charity directed at pre-Hogwarts education for soon-to-be students who were Muggleborn. Scorpius knew that Rose’s mother, Hermione Granger-Weasley, had set it up years ago so that Muggleborns coming into Hogwarts, and their families, had a better understanding of the world they were entering.
It wasn’t the charity that was causing Scorpius to feel lightheaded and panicky, however. It was the fundraising method they’d chosen:
The Hogwarts Student Charity Committee
Announces
The 11th Annual 6th & 7th Year Charity Fundraiser!
Sky High Blind Date Auction
Take a chance on true love:
Bid on a day with a mystery date;
hopefully it won’t be someone you hate.
Possibly, it might even turn out okay,
so we will just take this moment to say:
Put all your galleons towards this good cause,
we can’t promise he/she won’t be without flaws,
but maybe you’ll get your heart’s true desire,
if you join this auction and bid higher and higher!
Scorpius stared at the advert and knew a moment of fear because he knew the charity committee would be looking for 6th and 7th years to volunteer to be auctioned and Scorpius...well, Scorpius just couldn’t do it. He didn’t care how good the cause was, Scorpius could not...he couldn’t stand to go through something like that. How embarrassing. Especially when whomever “won” him realized who it was they’d have to spend the day with. It would just be awful.
Then Scorpius felt a wave of relief wash over him. Of course he wouldn’t have to participate-no one would come looking for mousy little Scorpius! He was always being overlooked. It wasn’t something he minded on a normal day, but in this instance, Scorpius was grateful for it. No one was going to force him to auction himself off for a day of awkward embarrassment, and he was far too shy to do any bidding himself. He was essentially scot-free.
Scorpius cast one last glance at the (ominous) advert and then wandered off.
~*~*~*~
Despite his confidence in his utter inability to participate, Scorpius found himself staring at the poster a lot. Eventually, smart, perceptive Rose caught him at it.
“You should volunteer for the auction, Scorpius,” she told him one day.
“What?” Scorpius said, jerking back in shock and then fumbling to push his displaced spectacles back into place. “Why?”
“You’re sweet, and kind, and intelligent,” she paused when Scorpius made a face at her. She rolled her eyes and added sardonically, “You’re not exactly painful to look at, Scorpius.”
“Almost no one knows I exist, Rose,” he told her. “I’d only embarrass myself.”
Rose’s look was incredulous, but she dropped her eyes back to her book all the same. “Whatever you say, Scorpius,” she murmured.
But Rose did not give up. She kept pestering him about it, first about volunteering to be auctioned, and then, once that deadline had come and gone, she pestered him about participating in the bidding.
“They’ve released the auction list,” Rose said, far too casually, during one of their afternoon study sessions in the library.
“Okay?” Scorpius replied, looking up from his textbook in confusion. He’d known they were going to release the list of people to be auctioned as incentive for others to participate in the bidding. During the auction itself, he knew, the identities of everyone participating would be hidden by a charm. Clues as to the identities of the biddees would be offered to make things more interesting for the bidders, but actual identities would only to be revealed when participants received their date certificates. But since Scorpius wasn’t planning to have anything to do with the auction, except, perhaps, as a silent observer, he wasn’t sure why Rose was bringing this up.
“My cousin’s participating,” Rose murmured, carefully penning the solution to the Arithmancy problem she’d been working on.
“Oooooo!” exclaimed Anastasia Finch-Fletchley, leaning over the back of her chair at a nearby table. “Which one?” she asked eagerly, staring wide-eyed, at Scorpius’s red-headed friend. The Hufflepuff’s obsession with Al Potter was legendary (and more than a little embarrassing for the Harry Potter look-alike), and Rose was rolling her eyes in irritation almost before the girl had finished speaking.
Despite Rose’s failure to elaborate, Scorpius knew “which one.” What he didn’t know was how Rose knew “which one.” Rose had discovered his quiet devotion almost before Scorpius had realized it himself, and in the two years of silent, careful pining since then, she neither let up on pushing him towards his secret infatuation nor revealed how she’d figured it out.
He ignored Rose’s silent expectation for as long as he could, then shot her his sharpest glare. Her wicked grin had him dropping his gaze back to his work. Any longer looking at Rose and he knew he’d start blushing. Curse his fair complexion and shy nature!
~*~*~*~
After several days of this strange cat and mouse game, Rose came rushing into the Ravenclaw common room one evening wearing the biggest, most fear-inspiring smile Scorpius had ever seen.
“I signed us up to participate in the auction!” she announced, flinging her bag down and dropping onto the cushy sofa Scorpius had been comfortably curled up on. Not anymore though. He was anything but comfortable now.
“What?” Scorpius jerked back so fast his reading spectacles fell off. He fumbled to catch them and shove them back up his narrow nose. “You what?” He feared there might have been a bit of an unmanly squeak to his voice there. He decided to pretend he hadn’t noticed it. Because Scorpius was fully capable of being both manly and terrified. Really. He was.
“I signed us up for the auction. And you’ll participate, Scorpius,” she added, adopting the fierce, determined look she liked to use when she really, really wanted him to do something unpleasant. “It’s time you faced your fears, so to speak,” she added with a sly little smile.
“You-”
“You’ll do it, and you’ll like it, Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy, or so help me...” Rose launched into a long diatribe about bravery and shedding his boyhood introversion and following in the steps of her Gryffindor ancestors (never mind that none of those ancestors were his ancestors).
Eventually, Scorpius managed to get a word in edgewise. “But what if I don’t win?” he asked, certain this was his fate. He was a very unlucky person after all. And then all that humiliation would have been for nothing.
Rose didn’t point out that certain identities (such as Potter/Weasley relations) were likely to be more strongly hinted at, or that Scorpius had more money than just about everyone else at Hogwarts combined. She merely looked at him, raised one eyebrow, and said, “But what if you do?”
~*~*~*~
“What indeed?” Scorpius wondered to himself several weeks later, staring in shock at the certificate in his hand stating that, in exchange for his bid of 135 Galleons, he had an official date next Hogsmeade weekend with one Lily Luna Potter, the girl of his dreams.
Well, that last part wasn’t on there, but his mind automatically added it in.
“Lucky man,” said the fifth year Gryffindor who’d handed the certificate to him in return for his cheque.
Scorpius felt panic grip his heart and squeeze, hard. This wasn’t luck. It was the antithesis of luck.
Scorpius couldn’t even move when Lily was around. What was he supposed to do when he was expected to actually interact with her? For a whole day? Scorpius was doomed. If Lily didn’t already think he was a freak for turning red and stammering in her presence (or running away), she would after their “date.”
This was the most unlucky day of his life.
~*~*~*~
Scorpius didn’t remember getting dressed. He knew he must have done, he was dressed after all, and he had a vague recollection of Rose digging through his trunk and tossing clothes at him this morning. He was also clean and well-groomed, so he must have finished his other morning ablutions, but he couldn’t really remember that either. The whole morning was a blur of fear and panic.
So now, here he was, tucked tightly in a dark corner of the Entrance Hall, the stone wall behind him cold at his back as he practically hid from the girl of his dreams.
If Scorpius thought he could get away with it without being caught, he’d have turned and pressed his heated face to the corner, instead of his back. He was sure he was bright red already; he was practically trembling with nerves.
Just then, Scorpius caught a flash of red out of the corner of his eye, and he felt his heart stop, but it was just Rose appearing in a halo of red frizz to hug him.
“It’s fine, Scorpius,” she whispered to him quietly. “She’s looking forward to it, really. You’ll do fine. And I promise I’ll be nearby the whole time. You can always count on me to get you out of anything you can’t handle, you know that.” She squeezed his damp hands, kissed his fevered cheek, and disappeared.
In the moment Rose’s hair cleared his vision, Lily suddenly appeared at the top of the stairs leading up from the dungeons. Scorpius froze at the sight of her, watching her eyes sweep the room, looking, he assumed, for him.
Scorpius found himself hunching deeper into his corner, pressing the palms of his splayed hands against the stone behind him and wishing he could just sink through the wall. Wishing he could disappear wasn’t enough to hide him, apparently; a few minutes later, Lily spotted him anyway. Her grin was bright and instantaneous.
“Scorpius!” she called. He watched her wave goodbye to her friends and then make her way over to him. His hands twitched, and he pressed them harder back against the stone. Lily was bright and outgoing and funny. She was clever-Scorpius suspected she was every bit as smart as he was-but with that cunning edge typical of members of her House. Despite the stigma that still lingered around Slytherin, Lily was popular and well-loved; she had friends (and family) in every House. Scorpius really couldn’t think of anyone who didn’t like Lily.
They had absolutely nothing to talk about.
Not that Scorpius was all that sure he’d be able to talk even if they did, but that was beside the point.
“Scorpius?”
Scorpius blinked. While he’d been absorbed with his little panic attack, Lily had reached him and, if her expression and the hand she was waving in front of his face were any indication, had greeted him several times already. Scorpius felt his face heat and cursed his complexion for the fifty millionth time.
“Um, hi,” he told her quietly, shuffling his feet a little and offering an uncertain smile.
Her look of concern cleared immediately, replaced by another bright smile. “So, are you ready to go then?”
“Go?” Scorpius blinked.
Lily’s smile widened a little. “To Hogsmeade?”
“Right!” Scorpius gasped. He could swear his face was so hot he was sweating a little. He pushed his fringe back with one hand as an excuse to check, but his palms were damp, so he couldn’t really tell.
When he turned his attention back to Lily, she had tilted her head to one side and was giving him a long, unreadable look.
He blinked at her. “What?”
She smiled a tiny, equally unreadable smile, and gently snagged his hat from his pocket. She gently tugged the dark blue beanie down over his ears (would he never stop blushing?) and then tucked one hand into the crook of his elbow.
“You’re really quite shy, aren’t you?” she asked as they started for the doors.
“Um,” Scorpius couldn’t force the admission past his lips. He focused his attention on pulling on his gloves and not tripping over his own feet in an effort to keep from blushing again.
Lily laughed. “I always wondered how I’d never managed to meet you when you’re Rosie’s best friend.”
Managed to meet him?
“You’re my favorite cousin’s best friend. Of course I wanted to meet you.”
Oh. Apparently he’d said that out loud.
Lily laughed. “So now that I have met you, and I have you all alone, I am going to interrogate you.”
“W-what?” Scorpius stumbled a little.
Lily snickered. “Well, Rosie won’t tell me a single thing about what it’s like in Ravenclaw, and she’s my only family in that House. She just goes on and on about studying, like that’s all anyone in Ravenclaw does, and I want to know what really goes on in there. I want to know all about it. So spill!”
“Spill?” Scorpius glanced at Lily out of the corner of his eye, then immediately looked away at the sight of her determined expression.
“Yes, Scorpius. Spill.”
“I...we...um, we really do study. A lot.”
“But that’s not all you do...Is it?”
If they’d been standing still, Scorpius would have been shuffling his feet. As it was, he felt his cheeks pinking a bit. “It..really is. Pretty much.”
Lily laughed. Scorpius was really embarrassed at first, but then Lily squeezed his elbow where her hand still rested on it and gently bumped her shoulder against his, and he somehow felt better.
There was silence for a while, and Scorpius was surprised to find he was only a little uncomfortable with it. It was actually kind of nice: cold winter air, a gentle breeze, and a fresh layer of snow covering the grounds and crunching beneath his boots. It was almost enough to make Scorpius forget that Lily Luna Potter had her hand curled into his elbow and was walking with him for the purpose of going on a “date.”
“So, Scorpius-do you mind if I call you Scorpius? I mean, it’s kind of a mouthful. That’s not what I mean either.” Lily huffed, and Scorpius forced himself to look at her even though he knew he’d blush again. Only, to his surprise, Lily was blushing, just a little, and Scorpius felt himself relaxing, truly relaxing, for the first time...well, since the auction, really.
“It is a bit of a mouthful, isn’t it?” He smiled at her startled expression and added, “That’s why no one who talks to me very often calls me by my full first name.”
Her expression was one part curious and one part demanding, and to Scorpius’s surprise, it made him laugh.
Lily growled a little and shook his arm. “So what do they call you?” she finally demanded. “Score? Scorp? Pius? What?”
Scorpius smiled. “A mix of those, really. But my closest friends and family call me-”
“Cory!” Scorpius blinked at her, surprised. “I was wondering who Rosie was talking about when she talked about ‘Cory’; I don’t know a single person by that name. How’d you get that nickname?”
“Rosie, actually. My father wouldn’t let anyone in my family give me a nickname before I came to Hogwarts because he said no one had managed to come up with one that wasn’t undignified. Rosie tried to call me ‘Scor’ for most of first year, but she decided it was undignified too and shortened it to ‘Cor.’ Then she decided that was odd, and added the ‘y.’ And then the metamorphosis of my name was complete.”
Lily laughed. “Well, I’m not family,” she said, looking thoughtful, “but do I get to count as a close friend?”
“Er...do you want to count as a close friend?”
She examined him out of the corner of her eye. “I think maybe I do.”
Scorpius blinked. He blinked again when he realized they’d reached their destination and reached to open the door of the Three Broomsticks for his companion.
“Why?” he asked, pausing with the door half open to look at the red-head in confusion.
“Why what?” Lily replied, releasing his arm. “Why do I want to be your close friend?”
Scorpius just stared at her.
Lily laughed and nudged him inside and towards an empty table. “Rosie talks about you all the time, but she doesn’t actually say anything. You know how she is. But you sound interesting. I’m intrigued by the man behind the mystery.”
Scorpius blushed. Again. “There really isn’t a mystery,” he told her awkwardly. “I just...”
“Study?” Lily’s face was serious, but her eyes were laughing at him from across the table.
“Um, right,” Scorpius agreed, dropping his gaze and shifting in his chair, uncomfortably aware that he was blushing again.
Madam Rosmerta came by right about then with a couple of butterbeers. She smiled at Lily, and then gave Scorpius a long, hard look before leaving their table. After that, Scorpius felt more than a little uncomfortable-he had managed to forget, in all the panic over Lily, that he usually avoided the Three Broomsticks. Madam Rosmerta had never quite forgiven Scorpius’s father for something he’d done when he was still in school, so she tended to keep a wary eye on Scorpius whenever he was present in her establishment. It made the blond uncomfortable, and eventually he’d just stopped frequenting the place.
Aware of Rosmerta’s disapproval, and of the whispering of the other students in the pub who seemed to be getting some amusement out of Lily Potter going on a “date” with mousy Scorpius Malfoy, Scorpius fell silent. After the silence stretched out for several long minutes, Scorpius began to peel the label off his bottle in an attempt to keep from panicking.
Out of the corner of his eye, Scorpius caught Lily giving him another of those long, assessing looks. She glanced around, then reached out and took his hand. He was so shocked by the contact that he let himself be pulled from his chair. As she maintained hold of his hand after they were both standing, he didn’t really notice they were leaving the pub and heading down the street to the Hog’s Head Inn until they arrived there.
“What are we doing here?”
“I go to the Three Broomsticks all the time. It occurred to me that I haven’t stopped by to say hello to Aberforth in awhile, and maybe I should. Besides, it’s quieter here and less crowded...and you looked like you were a little uncomfortable back there anyway,” she added the last part quietly, gently squeezing his hand before letting it go to pull out her chair at a tiny back corner table.
Scorpius was blushing again, but he sat happily enough and smiled at Aberforth when the man ambled over with some cider in a pair of cloudy mugs. He set them down along with two bowls of a thick fragrant stew. There was, Scorpius was delighted to see, a side of thick cut, greasy chips. Lily seemed equally excited to see chips on her plate, and they set to immediately.
For Scorpius, the next hour was spent lingering over his food, silently devouring everything Aberforth put in front of him and happily letting Lily chat at him about anything and everything. He quickly became fascinated by all her family stories. Scorpius was an only child with very few stories anyone outside his family would actually want to listen to. But Lily seemingly had hundreds-stories about the wild escapades of she and her siblings growing up, family Christmases, the wild escapades she and her cousins had got up to since first year, trips to the Quidditch World Cup, the wild escapades her Weasley uncles got up to behind her mother’s back. It was incredible. Much as he loved his family, he felt just a little bit envious.
Eventually, Lily seemed to realize that she was monopolizing the conversation and started asking him questions. Scorpius had never really been comfortable talking about himself, so the conversation stalled right up until Lily hit on his passion for Astronomy.
“Astronomy’s your favorite subject? Really?”
“You...” He hesitated, started again, “You don’t like it?”
“It’s totally incomprehensible to me. I think the stars are really pretty, but they’re just little dots in the sky. I can’t tell which are supposed to make shapes and which aren’t, or what the shapes are...and I hate having class in the middle of the night.”
Scorpius laughed a little. “I suppose it is fairly inconvenient, but...”
“But?”
Scorpius glanced away and hunched his shoulders uncomfortably.
“You can just say it, Cory, whatever it is.”
Scorpius looked up sharply at the nickname. He felt himself turn a little pink when he saw her teasing grin, but he leaned forward a little and answered, “Well it’s not like there’s a better time, is there? You can’t exactly see the stars during the day.”
She stared at him for a long, uncomfortable moment, then let out a little snicker. “You do have a sense of humor.” She looked pleased. Scorpius flushed and twisted his hands together under the table, trying not to shift in his seat too much in his embarrassment.
“You really do like Astronomy then.” A statement this time, not a question.
“I think it’s fascinating, the way the stars are grouped together, the way the constellations move across the night sky...I love everything about it.”
“Hmmm. You should give me lessons some time. Maybe I’d like it more if I had a teacher who really enjoyed it the way you seem to.”
Scorpius stared at her in shock. She wanted him to give her lessons? Scorpius had been fairly certain she’d never talk to him again after today, except perhaps for friendly hellos when they passed one another in the corridor. He couldn’t believe she’d actually want to spend time with him...
“Scorpius?” Lily touched the back of his hand briefly to get his attention.
“You...really want me to give you Astronomy lessons?”
“I really do,” she told, smiling.
“Alright,” Scorpius replied, agreeing before he could really think about it. Then he mentally cursed himself for not thinking things through better. He could hardly talk to her about mundane things, how was he supposed to have an intellectual discussion without sounding like a complete idiot?
“Excellent!” she said, grinning brightly.
The conversation after that continued along academic lines (apparently Lily’d figured out that Scorpius’s biggest passion really was school), and Scorpius found himself memorizing her favorite subjects despite his best effort not to pay any mind to the matter. By the time they’d finished lunch and paid with the certificate provided by the fundraiser, they’d pretty much exhausted the topic of school, and Scorpius found himself wondering if their little “date” was now coming to an end.
After all, he thought to himself, heart clenching in panic (equal parts fear that the date was over and fear that it was not), the agreement had been for one meal during the next Hogsmeade weekend, nothing more and nothing less.
And the meal was over.
Before he could decide what he wanted to happen next, much less try to guess what Lily wanted, Scorpius found himself being guided from the inn by Lily’s hand-curled comfortably in its spot in the crook of his arm-as the red-head chatted nineteen to the dozen about...ducks?
“And so then he took this sweet little baby duck right out of the pond, and he said...” Lily looked up at him and abruptly stopped walking. “What?”
“You’re talking about ducks.”
“Baby ducks. They’re very important to me. You should know that if you’re going to escort me around Hogsmeade, Mr. Malfoy.”
Scorpius laughed. Okay, she was definitely weird. He was pretty sure that made him like her more...but it also made him a little more comfortable. Scorpius was far from “normal” himself.
“Whatever you say,” he told her.
“Exactly so,” she said with a little sniff, sticking her nose in the air. They resumed walking, and then Lily squeezed his arm to get his attention.
“I suppose I should have asked; you don’t mind wandering about and doing a bit of shopping do you? You didn’t have other plans?”
“No plans,” he answered, carefully focusing on keeping his tone casual and not...squeaky. “I am at your disposal.”
“Wonderful,” she replied, and Scorpius felt there was something just a little ominous about the way she said that.
Despite her apparent desire to “wander about,” Scorpius almost instantly found himself dragged into Honeydukes. Not that he minded-he had a bit of a sweet tooth-but apparently Lily was more than a little addicted to chocolate. He felt his eyes widening as he watched her. He was fairly certain that basket was not meant to hold so many Chocolate Frogs.
“I get it from my dad,” she said, laughing at his incredulous expression. “He was never allowed sweets as a kid, so now that he’s grown up, he eats them all the time. And he’s got me and Al hooked on ‘em too.”
“Not James?”
“Never really took with him.” Lily thoughtfully chewed on a nail for a moment or two, then added, “There’s something wrong with that one.”
Scorpius laughed and picked out a few sweets for himself on their way to the cashier.
“Oh, rats,” murmured Lily, digging through her coin purse as they queued up to pay.
“What?”
“Al’s been in my bag again, that prat. Half my gold is gone.” She huffed irritably.
“Here, I’ll get it,” Scorpius said, reaching to take her overfull basket.
“No, Scorpius, you don’t need to-”
He cut her off by listing the basket from her hands and setting it on the counter. He added his own sweets to one side and, on a whim, requested a few pieces of the very delicious, but somewhat expensive, fudge they kept in the glass display case nearby. He normally refrained from buying any unless it was a special occasion, but he sort of felt this warranted.
Lily tried to protest several times, but Scorpius just ignored her, so eventually she gave up. When they got outside, Scorpius secretly slipped half the fudge in with her share of the sweets and handed the bag to her. She gave him a grateful smile.
“You really didn’t have to do that, you know,” she said, accepting the bag from him. “But thank you.” She reached out and gave him a gentle hug.
Scorpius froze and instantly blushed to the roots of his hair. He gulped audibly and frantically tried to decide what to do, but his brain didn’t seem to be working right. Eventually he attempted to reciprocate, but he couldn’t force his arms to move no matter how hard he tried. Before he could fully recover, Lily pulled back, and gave him a gentle smile.
“Really,” she said, “I mean it. Thank you.”
“I-I didn’t mind,” he muttered, still blushing and standing a little stiffly. But he managed to relax enough for Lily to tuck her hand back into the crook of his arm.
“So, um.” Scorpius had to pause to clear his throat. “Where to next?”
“Next” ended up being the joke shop Lily’s uncle owned, complete with an introduction to said uncle as Lily’s “date.”
Scorpius had never been so terrified in all his life he was sure. The look that man gave him when he asked if they were having fun...
Scorpius shuddered just thinking about it.
Still, the jokes were neat. Never having been much of a prankster himself, and having neither siblings nor friends who were jokesters (Rose was probably the only Weasley relation who wasn’t, and looking around, Scorpius decided to thank his lucky stars for that every day from now on), Scorpius had never been in the shop before. The blond started off trailing his whirlwind of a companion, but she was fast and there were too many interesting things on the shelves he was passing not to stop and linger at some of them. When Lily found him again sometime later, he had several small boxes in hand-nothing too adventurous, just a few items that had seemed particularly interesting or clever-and was examining another.
“Is that all you’re getting?” she asked him, draping her arm over one of his shoulders and leaning against him to look at the merchandise he’d selected.
Scorpius tried hard to speak through the blushing and the freezing her casual gesture had caused. “Erm, I’m, um...I’m not much for pranks.”
“I see that.” She turned her head and smiled up at him, resting her chin on the point of his shoulder. “I think, though, that you have potential. We’ll have to work on that. Later. Come on.” She dropped her arm and snagged his elbow instead, tugging gently. He started to put the box he’d been examining back on the shelf so he could follow her, but she caught his hand.
“Keep that one,” she said. “You’ll like it. The magic’s brilliant and it will take ages for you to dismantle it to see how it works.”
He flushed again at the realization that she’d figured out his primary interest in the pranks he’d picked up, but she just smiled at him and winked over her shoulder as she lead the way to the front of the shop.
“All these for me, please, Uncle George,” she said to the red-headed man behind the counter. “And these for Scorpius.” She stole all the boxes from Scorpius’s arms and deposited them on the counter beside her own before Scorpius could think to protest.
“Gentlemen pay, don’t they?” George asked, eyes hard on Scorpius and one eyebrow raised. Scorpius gaped at him and tried to speak, but Lily cut him off.
“Oh, hush, Uncle George. You don’t know the first thing about gentlemen. Anyway, Scorpius has been lovely and generous all afternoon; you’re being mean.” She turned to Scorpius then and added, “It’s only fair, Scorpius. You paid for our Honeydukes. Besides, I have more than enough to cover us both; I get a discount here.” She tossed him another wink and a sly grin before passing her money across the counter.
Several more shops followed that one, and Scorpius found himself enjoying shopping for the first time in his life. Lily didn’t just go into a store and buy things, she went in and browsed: picking things up and making silly comments, or speculating as to possible uses, or even intentionally wearing garments in ways for which they were not intended. Scorpius found himself spending most of the afternoon laughing at her antics and even, on the rare occasion, actually emulating them.
He liked making Lily laugh, he decided. It was really, really nice.
Eventually they made their way back to the Three Broomsticks, and this time, Scorpius was so focused on talking to Lily that he didn’t even notice Madam Rosmerta’s disapproval or the staring of the other students. Instead, he and Lily settled at a table near the large fireplace in the back of the pub and enjoyed several warm butterbeers and an hour’s comfortable relaxation before deciding to brave the cold to make the trip back to Hogwarts.
To Scorpius’s surprise, Lily seemed just as reluctant as he felt to end their day, but as both of them had homework to do, the day’s end was inevitable.
~*~*~*~
The walk back to Hogwarts was surprisingly comfortable. Scorpius remained relaxed, despite Lily’s nearness and the hand she had, once again, tucked into his elbow (in fact, he was almost used to having it there). They chatted easily in the manner they’d developed over the course of the afternoon. When they neared the school, however, they came across a group of students in the midst of a violent snowball fight just a little way off the path.
Scorpius, who’d never had a snowball fight before, slowed his steps so that he could watch. Lily gave him a considering glance and came to a stop, drawing him to a halt beside her by her grip on his elbow. She refrained from commenting on his obvious interest too, rather she stood still and quiet and watched with him.
Scorpius felt a little wistful as he watched the war develop. Much as he loved the Manor, its isolated location didn’t provide a lonely child many chances to make friends. He’d never had anyone to play in the snow with.
He caught Lily giving him another one of those surreptitious glances out of the corner of her eye.
“What?” he asked, wondering what it was she saw when she looked at him like that.
Lily shot him a wicked grin just before she oh-so-casually tossed a snowball in his face.
Scorpius’s jaw dropped. He...honestly couldn’t believe she’d just done that. He stood staring at her in shock for long moments, completely unsure as to how to react.
When had she even had the chance to make a snowball?
Lily took advantage of his shock to run away, laughing loudly as she threw a second snowball at his unsuspecting face the moment she was out of his reach. The second snowball woke him up, and Scorpius gave chase, scooping up snow and packing it between his gloved hands as he went. Soon, their tiny snowball fight had been absorbed into the much bigger snowball war and Scorpius, when he could find a moment to think, was surprised at how easily he’d been accepted by the other students.
The war raged for long, cold minutes, and when it was over, it was unclear which side had won, or even what the sides were or who was on them. Both Scorpius and Lily were laughing despite being soaking wet. Lily was especially drenched, as her brothers had tackled her at the very end of the fight and shoved handfuls of snow down the back of her cloak. She’d had take her scarf off and wring it out before they could finish their walk back to school, it was so saturated.
When Scorpius saw how badly she was shivering, he reached for his own scarf, which had been tucked into his cloak during the fight and had remained mostly dry. He pulled the scarf free and shyly offered it to her, unable to help returning her thankful grin with a tiny smile of his own.
The rest of their journey was full of laughter, mostly due to Lily’s wild recounting of her various exploits during the snowball war, and her teasing comments about his own actions. Scorpius was surprised at himself when he started teasing back, and Lily was actually laughing at one of his jokes when they reached the front steps, a fact that both astonished and gratified him.
Lily turned towards him with a warm, happy smile as they came into the Entrance Hall. “Thanks for today, Scorpius. I had a lovely time.”
“Really?” Scorpius could feel himself blushing again, but he managed not to stutter, so that was something.
“Really. I’m lucky you ended up bidding on me.”
“I, er...I had a nice time too,” Scorpius practically whispered.
Lily’s smile widened, and then went suddenly sly and cunning. “So,” she said, dropping her voice so that Scorpius had to lean in to hear her, “I’ll be in the back of the library all afternoon tomorrow, if you want to come start on my astronomy lessons.”
“Erp?” was Scorpius’s shocked reply.
Lily laughed and tugged his scarf from her throat, looping it around his neck instead and using it to draw him in. “Too fast, huh?” Another slow, cunning smile. “I’ll just reserve the next Hogsmeade trip for you then, shall I? Although I’ll still be in the library tomorrow, you know, in case a little of my Gryffindorish bravery has managed to rub off on you at all today.”
“Bu-but you’re a Slytherin,” was all Scorpius could squeak out.
Lily laughed again. “Poor confused Ravenclaw,” she murmured, then leaned in and pressed a warm kiss to his cheek. “Goodnight, Cory,” she whispered, and then she was gone.
Scorpius remained frozen in place, blushing bright red as he watched her walk up the stairs towards Gryffindor tower, where most of her family currently resided.
Slowly, Scorpius lifted one pale, slender hand to touch his cheek, pressing his fingers lightly to the skin she’d kissed.
Maybe he was lucky after all.